‘Philomena’, a film directed by Steven Fears, is a semi-biographical drama inspired by Philomena Lee’s (played by Judi Dench) 50-year-long search for her son, who was taken from her by a group of Irish nuns. In 1952, a teenaged, unmarried Philomena became pregnant and was sent to an Irish convent by her family. She was living there along with many other young women in the same situation, working in the laundry seven days a week to pay the Sisters for allowing them to stay in the convent and allowed to see their children for one hour each day. The nuns then sold Philomena’s son to an American couple, along with the daughter of one of her friends. The movie is based on Philomena’s acceptance of her past and discovering, aided by former BBC journalist Martin Sixsmith (played by Steve Coogan), what became of her son after he left Ireland. ‘Philomena’ was a film that left a lasting impression on me because of the way that its characters and messages lingered with me long after the credits had finished. The story of Philomena is a sad one, but ‘Philomena’ manages not to be just a sad film, it is funny, powerful and heart-warming in the best of ways. The screenplay was realistic without being boring, funny without being desperate for laughs and confronting/thought provoking without being aggressively so.

The characters and the way they are acted are one of my favourite things about the film, Philomena and Martin are two very different people coming together to achieve one thing, if for slightly different reasons. The contrast between Martin’s cynical atheism and Philomena’s staunch forgiveness of and through Catholicism was a dynamic that interested me, because I found myself agreeing with Martin but somehow wishing I could have the mindset of Philomena, particularly at the end when Martin confronts Sister Hildegarde. The nuns have deliberately concealed the fact that Philomena’s son, Michael, had visited them, as well as the information that could have helped her find him. Martin eventually finds the nun who was the instigator of this, but has been ‘too ill’ to see them. He asks her why she hid the information from Philomena, and from her son, who was dying from AIDS and came to Ireland as a final attempt to find his mother. Sister Hildegarde then responds saying that losing her son was Philomena’s penance for getting pregnant out of wedlock, and that she (Sister Hildegarde) has kept her vow of chastity and it will bring her closer to God. Martin is, quite rightfully, angry, but Sister Hildegarde just responds by saying that only Jesus can judge her. Martin’s response is as follows “Really? Because I think if Jesus was here now, he'd tip you out of that fucking wheelchair - and you wouldn't get up and walk.” At this point I was cheering Martin on, I was so disgusted by Sister Hildegarde and angry that Philomena and her son had missed out on a lifetime together. Then Philomena cuts in, saying “Sister Hildegarde, I want you to know that I forgive you.”, to which Martin says “What, just like that?”, clearly still angry, as was I. Philomena: “It’s not just like that, that’s hard. That’s hard for me. But I don’t want to hate people. I don’t want to be like you. Look at you.” Martin: “I’m angry!” Philomena: “Must be exhausting.” While I was watching this exchange I couldn’t look past the fact that I wanted to Sister Hildegarde to be struck by lightning from on high, or at least feel some sense of remorse for what she had done to so many women and their children. But, after the movie had ended, I saw what an amazing thing Philomena did, and realised that one of the things that makes this movie so wonderful is that there is no external gain in terms of plot. Philomena doesn’t physically meet Michael, she doesn’t triumph over the nuns in any tangible way, but she is no longer ashamed of having had her son, she doesn’t have to wonder about what became of him and she knows him better just through home videos and the accounts of friends.